Depending on the research you subscribe to, acquisitions fail anywhere between 50 to 85 percent of the time. While accounting and legal due diligence receive most of our attention when buying a business, these five areas are equally important to succeed in your next acquisition.

1. Ownership. You need to approach the owners of a potential target with a long-term relationship in mind. In this way, you need to “date” the potential sellers well before you are ready to pursue an acquisition. They will become emotionally invested in your company and ideas over time and more comfortable sharing information with you.

2. Culture. Since you’re effectively hiring 100 percent of the acquired company’s employees on Day One, company culture can be very difficult to change after a deal is consummated. Do those employees exemplify each of your core values? Unless you consider this question ahead of time, you won’t know the answer until long after you’ve “hired” them.

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3. Customers. If you’re looking to acquire a business that generates most of its revenue from a handful of customers, uncovering these relationships, understanding the underlying contracts and assessing the long-term stability of these accounts are an obvious must.

4. Technology. If you know the business and the industry well, you probably know what IT systems work well. When there’s a lack of consistency between the technologies that the two companies use, you need to assess the risk of conversion in terms of time and money.

5. Valuation. Hands down, the most difficult question to answer during a potential acquisition is, “What is this business worth?” My answer: “A business is worth what two parties agree on.” You can discount cash flows or apply an industry multiple for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but your valuation methodology won’t matter unless both sides of the deal agree.

Greg Greenwell is president of TotalPrint, a provider of managed print services. He is also a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization Nashville